This Had Oscar Buzz - 179 – On Chesil Beach

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Saoirse Ronan came on strong at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival with two films that had the opposite experience: the immediately beloved Lady Bird and the misfire On Chesil Beach, which cratered after world premiering on the first day of the festival. The film reunited Ronan with Ian McEwan, the author of her Oscar-nominated breakthrough performan in Atonement, … Continue reading "179 – On Chesil Beach"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilyn Hacks. I'm from Canada. I'm from Canada water. His father do? You mean, is he working class

or one of us? That's more or less what I mean. You don't seem quite as happy. As you should. Something's bothering you, Flo. Come on, Flo. It's easy. Just point and choose.

Something about yourself. A little delicate. The sex manual says women are like doorways. Men can enter through them. God's sake, Florence. How long have you been there? I thought I'd just...

Asked you a question, dammit. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz Podcast. the only podcast that doesn't want your laugh. It wants to help you entering that science fair for our rocket project. Every week on this head Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with my Jungle Kitty, Joe Reed.

On Chesa Beach. I want to jump in with the Rakata Titi Tata sound clip just instead of my voice entirely, just to, like, get it off of the table because it's the one thing I think of now when I think of this movie title is your demented decision to place the title of this film in the cadence of Bibi Zahara's B'Binay's verse in, what's the name of that entire song? Oh, you asked me too quickly, but her line is I'm pussy bitch. It's obviously, yes. I know the other team's song was sitting on a secret, but what was there? I can't remember it. Anyway. It's the best thing about the entire season of All-Stars 3, and anybody who didn't

like Beebe can suck it as far as I'm concerned. It was so good. Out of respect for Daylor, we are here to talk about on Chesel Beach. Not the most exciting film to talk about. No, if Jungle Kitty was showed up in this movie, she might have saved the day to explain to them, you know, how to unpack their trauma and enjoy the sexual experience. I believe you mean trauma, but yes. How dare you? This is a film about trauma.

It is actually, truly, that is the case. On Chesel Beach is an elevated horror. I mean, in a lot of ways it is and not to the benefit of the movie. I think a lot of the reviews, if you go back and read the negative reviews, a lot of them sort of pointed out the fact that, like, it's pretty tasteless to turn the subject matter of this movie into almost like a whodunit or a puzzle box of just like, why is Sersha Ronan's character the way she is? Well, let's find out from her life. And it's just like, it's kind of gross. I'm pretty sure it's the exact structure of the book, and, like, I understand anybody who thinks that it's, like, gross, but I feel like it could be, as a novel, you know, this type of structure might work a little bit more in your inside of a character's head and, like, processing memory in the way a character would, but in a movie, I'm just not sure it works. I never read the novel either, but I just from, again, from reading reviews, especially from people who had read the novel.

They said it's a world of difference from when you are sort of inside Florence's head for, you know, much of it and are sort of, you know, getting things from her perspective. And the movie doesn't really replicate that. And in many ways, can't. Like a movie, like any time you're adapting from a book that exists so much inside the head of a certain character, that's always going to be a challenge when you adapt a movie and you're going to have to change things and sort of figure out a way around. it and right and like in movies that have pulled it off successfully it's like creating a the tone in the movie that matches like the tone of the narration or you know the tone of that character's voice in their head or you know not just like literally following the beats as they do in the novel which i'm not i haven't read the book either so i don't know if this is exactly it

i was watching part of this and my spouse has read this book and he was like oh yeah This seems exactly like it was in the book. And he's like, why are you watching this? Well, I remember when this movie played at TIF, which is where I saw it for the first time. And first of all, watch this movie in the IMAX theater at TIF. That was one of those ones where they programmed. Like the first morning of TIF, yeah. If it wasn't the first day, it was like within the first couple days.

No, I looked at the schedule. Oh, really? Yes, it was. The, like, first public showing was the first day of TIF, and then it's the first morning of the press, which is, like, part of the reason why this movie, like, died the second that it was seen, because, like, it was, like, not really competitive on, like, the press screening schedule in terms of, like, what were the big title. So it's, like, everybody saw this movie at once, and then everybody immediately dismissed it. and the movie was effectively dead. It was such a bizarre experience watching this in the IMAX theater, as it is any time they program something that's not sort of visually grandios on the IMAX screen.

I remember, once again, I saw the Danish girl from the third row of the IMAX, which... Oh, no. Not a great environment to watch the Danish girl. Famously, I saw Lady Bird and IMAX at Tiff. The Lady Bird IMAX screening. That was the one that was, like, insanely competitive. People were, like, stabbing, you know, friends of theirs to get into that screening. It was famously overflowed.

Oh, okay. Because I remember that first one where they were, people were just like, they were turning away people by the dozens from the Lady Bird screening. And that was before we knew what this movie was. I think that was the first indication that Lady Bird was going to be big. Speaking of Sersia in 2017. But anyway, before I saw on Chesel Beach, I remember talking to a couple people or hearing from a couple people who had read the book and they were being very cryptic and just being like, I'm very curious how a certain, you know, climactic moment of the movie is going to be rendered on screen. And as it turns out, just as it was, just as people were expecting that, like, in both cases, the plot does truly hinge on a moment.

moment of premature ejaculation. And there it is. So... There it is. Can I just say the way that Billy Howell is shot and like obviously it's intentional, the way he is shot in that like scene is so appalling. Like it's at an angle of his face that is so, like I think it's maybe one of the better points of the movie that like it really does make you feel not just like uncomfortable, but kind of. kind of repulsed by like, um, yeah, this hovering man, um, yeah, I just not keyed in to where she's at and her, how little she wants this to be happening. We'll get into it later, but I do feel like he gives a very good performance in that movie,

and he's an actor who I generally like and, well, we'll talk about it. Yeah, we'll talk about it. We'll disagree and we'll talk about it. Okay. Always looking forward to that. Yes. I kind of push for us to do this movie, mostly because lately I feel like I miss Sershah. Well, yes. Yeah.

What's, where, when was the last time we had some fun with Sershia, I'm trying to think? Was it, has it been anything since Little Women? Yeah. Well, I mean, she's in the French dispatch, and I did like her being in that, I mean, very, very briefly. I did think that she was like, I don't know, I like the French dispatch. I also famously never saw Ammonite. I never ended up seeing Ammonite. See, but like when you walk away from Ammonite, it's like, why was Sersha in that movie?

Yeah. Like maybe somebody who was a little more expected could have done something, but like that is Kate Winslet's show. Yeah. Because, yeah, she doesn't really have much to do. We'll talk about Ammonite eventually. Oh, eventually, yes, we will talk about it. I'm basically saving, watching that movie until we do cover it on this podcast. But yes. Better movie than people gave it credit for. All right. That's sort of, I remember the sort of the boomerang of the reception of that movie has me feeling, you know, more hopeful to see it, which is good. And it obviously heralded a really good year for Kate Winslet because all of a sudden, you know, after the sort of fizzle of, you know, after the sort of fizzle of,

the Ammonite Oscar campaign came the deserved onslaught of awards for Marevistown, which she's For her best performance ever. Oh, she's so good on that show. Spectacular. Spectacular. All right. So, Chesel, which I always want to spell with a second H, even though it'd be silent. Like, I always want to put a second H.

It's like, it's Ketulhu or something. That it's Chess Hill. But, like, you know how the English, like, where you're putting the second H. Like, well, they'll say Churchill, but there's a, there's a second H in Churchill, like, that, basically. Chezzle is a word that makes me feel like people are going to yell at me for saying it wrong, like it's supposed to be Cheezel. I don't know. I feel like every time I've heard it, because if you'll notice when I play the Rakata Titi Tata clip that I have jinned up, Sersha does say it as on Chesel Beach.

She says Chesel like that. She doesn't Irish it up like she does Magroober. So one of her greatest performances, just saying the word McRuber, one of my favorite things that she's ever done. Yeah, I would like to see her doing something fun again in the vein of Lady Bird or something like that. I feel like something that's a little less stuffy. Obviously, little women was so much fun and so much, like, broke out of whatever, you know, period costume, you know, drama mold that you might have thought for that. But like- She's been playing Lady Macbeth on the London stage. Which is good, but like, I mean, unpopular, not unpopular opinion or whatever, but like, I may be good with Macbeth for a little while.

Well, you know what I mean? Yeah, you're, you're going to have to live with it. because Daniel Craig and Ruth Naga are about to do it on Broadway. Well, good for me then that I'm not seeing things on Broadway at the moment. So, yeah. But it'll be in the ethos and the culture in the discussion. That's true. That's true.

Well, I mean, we're never going to, like, people are never going to stop doing Macbeth. And I don't think they should stop doing Macbeth. But, like, I'm at least at a point where I'm, like, the idea of somebody doing Macbeth doesn't thrill me at the moment, right? Right. So, whatever. Sure. Whatever, whatever. Well, okay. So she's been doing that. She has this searchlight, like, period murder mystery pseudo thing that I can't tell. The title is something very strange.

See how they run? Yes. Yes. Which I don't. It's a good cast. Good cast. Good cast. Probably going to be a fun movie. Hopefully Searchlight isn't just planning on dumping it on Hulu. Like, it seems like that company is gearing up to be. Thank you, Disney. so we'll see other than that that's all she's got coming yeah well maybe we're in a in a lull before another big she tends to do movies and bunches i feel like she between 2017 and 2018 she had like a shitload of movies right and if we had lived in a normal time ammonite and french dispatch would have been coming out at the same time that's true yeah that's a good point so you know maybe you know she has taken you know, some time to do some theater

and then she's going to, you know, come back into film and stuff like that. So, I keep trying to, like, avoid talking about the movie on Chesel Beach just because there's not a ton to really say about it. Well, then let's get into the plot description and we can kind of unpack our feelings about the movie

and then there's also a lot to talk about around this movie too. So let's get into the plot description. And once again, guys, we're here to talk about Rockacetitita on Chesel Beach, directed by Dominic Cook, his directorial debut, famous theater director, written by Ian McEwan based on his own novel. We'll get into the Ian McEwen of it all, starring Sarsheronan, Billy Howell, the great Emily Watson, and Marie Duff and Samuel West will also talk about it. World premiered the first day of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and then opened limited in the state. the next May, Memorial Day weekend. Mr. Joseph Reed, are you ready to give us a 60-second plot description? Absolutely unprepared, but let's do this. Okay, your 60-second plot description, four, on Chesel Beach, starts now.

All right, it's England in the 1960s, and I guess it's a swinging time for many people, but not for Edward and Florence, who just got married and never had sex before, and they are very sort of young and innocent. And he's sort of like a rock and roll guy, and she's a classical violinist. And he comes from a working class family, and she comes from a more posh family. And they get married, and they go to honeymoon on the Dorset, I believe, which is where Chesel Beach is. Anyway, Chesl Beach. The problem is that she seems very reticent to have sex for the first time, and he wants to,

and there's a whole lot of flashbacks into their lives and what's going on, and why did it. and they finally try to have sex, and he comes all over her thigh, and she gets so upset, and she runs away. And we find out through flashbacks that it's because her father probably molested her, and it's really unsettling. And then she wants to live a marriage without sex, and he gets so furious at this suggestion, and he leaves her forever. And then many years later, they're both old, and she's playing the violin,

and he's very sad, but they never got together. That's basically it. I didn't talk about how his mom has got hit by a train door and had brain damage. and the way that that is shot is not supposed to be funny oh but it is it really is ends up being funny she just like turns around and a train door knocks her over in a way that looks like it's shot from the mask or something some jim carrie movie his mom's also mentally unwell but that's why though right like that's the that's the explanation as to why i believe why she gets it hit by the door see the fucks in this movie are not very precise.

I believe we're meant to think that she got hit, she got hit by the train door, and that is why she had mental problems for the rest of her life. I don't know. It's such a kind of, like, shaggy movie in a way that, like, really kind of hurts, I think, some of the generational and gender dynamics and sexual dynamics throughout it that like this movie really should be like precise in these flashbacks and precise in what it's

actually saying because like the the plot point is that she she basically wants to be asexual in their marriage but crucially she says you can sleep with whoever you want so long as you just love me and that's what makes him explode because he's appalled by that he's appalled by that Because I think what the suggestion here is is that he doesn't, it's not sex that he wants. It's not sex that he's been promised, you know, as a man entering marriage. He's been promised control. And that's what like the societal demand is. And what she is requesting is, would create more of a parity between the two of them.

They would be equal. They wouldn't be having sex. Right. They would both be getting ultimately what they want, and he can't have that. And I don't think he realizes that until later. I don't think the movie underlines that very well. Well, the movie sort of shoves all of this really, the part that's really kind of interesting into the last, I'll be generous and say a half hour, but it's really the last like 20, 25 minutes. And there's so much sort of like ponderous getting to the point of where this all happens.

and you're right, like this kind of negotiation between them all sort of happens in this one scene on the beach, which, by the way, for a titular beach, it looks like a really bad beach because it's just all full of stones. It's like a stone mound path, and like when they're trying to stomp away from each other, it's all like awkward and they're kind of like falling and catching their balance. Slipping through the loose stones. Yeah, it just looks. It's one of those things where I remember my family and I would go to Cape Cod on occasion

that's sort of our like place we would go when we would go on vacation and we would always sort of end at some point like at low tide when like the sandbars are out and whatever like the beaches look wonderful but when you sort of first walk out to the beach especially if it's high tide

it's just like oh it's just all rocks on the beach like that's sort of what you're walking out to and but anyway so the whole movie is this like long lead up to this one confrontation on the beach. And that's where things do get interesting because you're right. Then there are power dynamics there. There are the fact that I find it interesting that she leads

up to her pitch to him of how they could live their lives with her being asexual and him having affairs or whatever with just like, my mom knows these two gay guys who have an apartment in the city and they live and they're fine. And her point is we don't have to play by, you know, we can make our own rules just like they've made our own rules. And he's very shitty about it afterwards. It's like, we're not too queers on, you know, Beaumont Street or whatever. And, but it is interesting that that's how she would try to lead with that when she's trying to get him to realize that we could just like, this would be fine. And she's just like, just like these two, you know, closeted homosexuals in the city.

And it's, it's, I thought that was very funny. Um, but this is all of this is where the movie gets interesting. And then all of a sudden. this scene is over and it's just like, that's it. The marriage is over. And then the next thing we know, after like a couple scenes with him sort of telling his family that it's over, it's a flash forward. And then he's like living with a lifetime of regret. And it's just like, if we could exist in that space a little bit more, it's a more interesting movie rather than having it be an hour and a half of buildup to like, why does she react so strongly when he comes on her, you know, leg or whatever. And I don't know. Anyway. Well, I don't know if you need more of that. I just think you need it to be better and more precise. Because, like, McEwen is a writer who writes very well about, like, regret and the effect of that on an entire life. But, like, you compare this to Atonement, which we'll get into it because of Sertia.

You compare this to Atonement, that is not that much of that book. That's, like, 20 pages of that book and maybe 10 minutes of that movie. but it makes it so clear and so succinct that it's devastating and like it puts you in that character's state of I fucked things up not just for myself but for other people whereas I suppose on Cheswell Beach is just this guy like I was a bastard when I was younger and it's you know but also the idea of regret kind of winds its way through atonement before we get to that scene at the end and and where if not like nimb narratively prepped for it. We're certainly like emotionally prepared for it. And and it's sort of the logical, natural end point to that movie. And in a way where Chesel Beach, it feels like all suddenly sprung on me where all of a sudden I'm just like, oh, that's what this movie's been about this whole time is she wants to have a non-conventional, uh, celibate marriage with this guy. And it's just like, oh, I had no idea that that's

what this was about. And before I, even sort of gotten my bearings as to, oh, now this is the space that I'm in. That scene is done and we're, and I don't need the scene specifically to be longer. I need the emotional space that we are in in that part of the movie to have more room to breathe and have more room to explore itself and to explore the notions of itself. And whether that is scenes earlier in the movie where she maybe, hey, meets this homosexual couple who her mom knows on Beaumont Street, like these kind of things. And, you know what I mean?

Every movie needs a third act, um, Serscha monologue of like, you know, there are these gay men. Who would have played them and why is one of them Simon Russell Deal? Right?

Simon Russell Beal and Rory Kineer? Who else? Um, I'm trying to think. Or Rory Kineer and, Reese Ifon's? No, I'm more so thinking, God, why is his name? Stephen Frye.

Oh, well, of course. Stephen Fry and Simon Russell, Biel. That's your couple. Exactly, exactly. I love this. All right, go back in time and make this happen, Dominic Cook. Yeah, so by the time you get to this end scene where they're in like this really extreme old age makeup and she's married. And we're left to assume that this marriage that she's found is, you know, is satisfactory to her, right?

She's sort of, you know, ended up with, one would hope, at least, that she didn't just sort of, like, end up in a marriage where she's forced to have sex. But she also has this regret of, you know, this life with him, Edward, that never happened. And he's in the audience just, like, we're reaping on the latex on his face. We don't get her perspective, though. of the rest of her life. That's a big problem. We just see her. She never speaks for herself.

We never see any of her flashbacks. We just know she has a family with like children and grandchildren now. Yeah. But like we don't know if the reason she's crying is because there's a sense of regret or if the pain of that experience is still living with her. We don't know what the difference is. And I would have liked to have known. Yes. Yes.

Same. Or like if we're not going to. know, that whole sequence should be played just from his perspective. So it's like, he doesn't know and we can't know either. But instead, it's kind of like this duet of them looking at each other and crying. And we get it from both of their perspectives, but we don't actually know what her perspective is. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's a lot, it's, to me, it's a big waste of, the movie ends up being a waste of a talented cast

a potentially I guess interesting story if it's told differently it's a waste of Sean Bobbitt as a cinematographer you know what I mean it's just like it just in general feels

I feel like we've gotten fairly in depth with like the substance of the movie but have said nothing about the first hour of it because it takes that long to get into what the movie is really about. Well, and so much of the, like, when I said in my plot description of just like, he's, you know, he likes rock and roll and she likes classical music.

He's from a working class family. She's from a posh family. And it's like, those are the things in the, like, the premise of the movie, but they don't really make themselves known in any kind of interesting way. We're told this. But it doesn't ever really feel like they're like that, all that different. You don't get the sense when they're on this honeymoon that there are two people who come from different worlds, or at least I don't. Right, I agree.

So I think that's a problem. And maybe that is a problem with the acting, but, like, I also feel like the movie doesn't dramatize it in any interesting way. So you didn't like Billy Howell in this movie. I thought he was quite good. I don't. I mean, like, some of it, I think the character isn't defined really well. Like, we know that he is, like, quick to get angry and, like, maybe overreact. But, like, also the support we have for that is him, like, protecting his friend who, like, is somebody shouts, like, a Jewish slur at him.

And he beats the shit out of this stranger in the street. But, like, that's kind of, I mean, like, he gets outsized in violence to, like, you know, the aggression that it was shown towards his friend. And it's like, oh, wait, maybe he could kill this guy. But it's like, we're still supporting it because, like, he's protecting his friend. Right. But he's never really likable. We're never really, like, in his head.

And, like, he's supposed to be a shit. Like, he is in the wrong for what the substance of the movie is, right? but I don't know I understand her more than I understand him and I think the movie is stronger I think it's to total opposite I think we don't get nearly enough of her for me to feel like I am

in it with her which I think is a big problem of the movie I think at the very least we get more and I think the fact that it's an imbalance is a problem We get more of him. There's a scene where he brings Florence home to meet his family, and specifically his mother.

And he's, of course, very nervous about this. And it goes well. Like Florence really, you know, sort of reacts well to his mother's mental illness. And even though things don't go quite right, like his mother is still, like, naked in the living room when they show up and whatever, but it goes well, and he sort of retreats to the kitchen and he breaks down and starts crying out of, to me at least, relief and sort of appreciation for the fact that this girl that he loves fits, like, is a good fit for the particular sort of like trying home circumstances that he has.

And that to me sort of really endeared me to him. I thought the scene where he does sort of, you know, get violent in defense of his friend, while foreshadowing of the temper that he ends up displaying on the beach is also endearing in a way. So I do feel like we get enough of him. And I think those are the scenes in which I think he does a particularly good job. And then as impossible as the task is on the beach to sort of. of like tell enough of the story where it is really kind of getting sprung on us. He has moments where he is in the wrong and he is, you know, acting out in this sort of

toxicly male perspective where I think he sells it to me and sells it to me sufficiently that I sort of, I get where he's coming from, even if I'm not on his side. I'm a little less sold because like all those threads to me. and the performance aren't like brought together into like a believable person he's just doing whatever is happening in the moment you know and it's not it's not creating the fabric of a person right and maybe like my feelings on the balance are just i think sersha is a better actor and performer than he is and it's interesting because we're both the two of the three people on the planet who have seen both of them in the seagull yeah um

And I really didn't like him in that movie either. I don't love him in that movie. I don't really remember a ton about him in the movie. I don't remember a ton about that movie that isn't Elizabeth Moss. That isn't specifically Elizabeth Moss smoking. Yes, exactly. Like, I don't love Sersha in that movie either. I don't think she's all that good.

And, no, the thing that I like, because the, Billy Hall has only been in a very small handful of movies. One of them being one of the eight billion twinks on a beach in Dunkirk. He's a drowning twink in Dunkirk. Yes. The thing that I really loved him in, and I know you're going to disagree, although you maybe have not seen this movie, but whatever. He's great in Outlaw King, a movie that I... You are right. I have not seen that movie.

Saw it Tiff before they, like, re-edited it or whatever. And even before the re-edit, I really liked it. I saw it at the premiere. That was the one where everybody sort of like walked out. and started texting about how you see Chris Pine's penis in the movie. Yes, because you saw it not only before the re-edit, but you saw it before everyone knew that Chris Pine showed hog in the movie. I think it's a good movie.

I've never seen it again because it's a long and brutal movie, and I didn't really feel like I wanted to go through that again. But for what it was, being sort of this violent and brutal and whatever, I thought it was good. And I thought Billy Howell, who plays Prince Edward, who is the son of the king in this movie. And this is the character who I'm pretty sure, because Outlaw King and Braveheart sort of like connect at odd angles.

Like, it's not, Chris Pine doesn't play the character that Mel Gibson plays in Braveheart, but like that character, William Wallace, is in Outlaw King, sort of elsewhere and sort of on the periphery of it. But it's about the same general sort of era in Scotland and fight for Scottish. Dependence, and yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, I think the character that Billy Howell plays in Outlaw King, who is the sort of like, not exactly, in Outlaw King, he's not exactly like foppish, but he's sort of like, he's a weakling who overcompensates by trying to act like a tough guy, and he just sort of comes across as just really over the top. And of course, in Braveheart, this is the character who, like, is a homosexual. and has a lover, and, like, Belle Gibson throws the lover out of a tower in this, like, very triumphant and gross homophobic moment in the movie.

And, but anyway, anyway, what I'm saying is, Billy Howell is tremendously entertaining and a big old hoot in Outlaw King, and I really loved him. And he hasn't really been in much of anything since then. British TV. He was in a lot of British TV that I haven't seen. He's going to be, however. In the television adaptation of the John Crackauer book under the banner of heaven, which is about a murder that happens within the Mormon community in Utah. Didn't they finally film that thing? Because they've been talking about doing that for like a decade.

Yes. Because it's a mini-serie. Who's like the marquee star in this? Andrew Garfield. Yes. Yes. For Andrew Garfield's, Daisy Edgar Jones. What's that?

For Apple? I want to say Hulu, but I could be wrong. It could be Apple. Anyway. Anyway, FX, I guess. All right, anyway, he's going to be in that, not as the lead, obviously, as we said, it's Andrew Garfield. But I read that book, and I was captivated by it. It's so fantastic and interesting.

And Krakauer also had written a book about, I believe, somebody who climbs Everest. Like, he's a nonfiction writer, and he wrote Into the Wild is the other thing. The book that the Sean Penn movie was turned into a very middling movie. I liked Into the Wild, I think, more than some of its detractors did. I haven't seen it since, but I remember liking it. Anyway, under the banner of heaven, I'm very much looking forward to. But yeah, so I generally, I feel like I'm more pro Billy Howell than you. And I think with Sersha, I don't dislike her in this movie, but because I've loved her so much in so many other things, this cannot help but feel like a letdown and a disappointment.

Well, she does, she actually does so few movies, but I think the bar is so high for her that, like, things like this get kind of forgotten because, like, people even talk about Hannah more than this. Oh, well, Hannah fucking rules. Let's sort of go through this Sershik career, actually, because we haven't had a chance. This is this our first, this might be our first Sershrenan movie, which is very exciting. Well, I mean, as we will see, there's not going to be many that we can talk about. Right. She played, is she, Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, and I Could Never Be Your Woman, the Amy Heckerling movie? Because I've never seen that movie.

Probably. Let's take a look in her. and see if we can tell by her character's name. Hold on. Yes, Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, and I Could Never Be Her Woman. I've never seen it. But anyway, obviously, the big breakthrough role comes in that same year. She's Young Brianie in Atonement, one of my favorite movies of that year.

Same. Probably my favorite Joe Wright movie, although he's made a ton of movies that I really like. she's really fantastic. She gets the Oscar nomination. She is the one Oscar nominated cast member from that movie, which I often feel like is a bummer because McAvoy rules in that movie, and Kira is so good in that movie. And I get why it all sort of funneled into Sersha, because she was young and so impressive at such a young age. Easy to categorize it as a supporting performance, whereas I think there was some hesitation to say that, like, Maca Boy is the lead of the movie for whatever weird reason, but like... He is, though. Like, Kira, I think, is a more, like, that's a squishier kind of a thing. She's the lead for, you know, the first third of the movie, and then she kind of goes away. Have you ever...

Have we ever talked about... I don't think we have on this, the stories that they've both told about filming that movie and specifically filming the sex scene in the library in that movie? Oh my god, maybe but no, tell our listeners. It's so wonderfully charming and I always think about it when I think of Joe Wright. So both of them separately on separate. She was on

the Graham Norton show more recently and he was on what's the chat show? It's a British Parkinson longer ago. And so but they both sort of tell basically the same story with the slight differences

in Joe Wright's tone of voice, but it's Basically, McAvoy's telling about how when you film sex scenes in movies, it could often be very uncomfortable for the actors because the directors are often hesitant to give specific direction. Sometimes they'll just say, find yourself in the moment and just sort of go with it. And he's like, and that's weird for actors because then if I, you know, touch a woman's breast, I'm the one making the decision to touch a woman's breast and it just feels, you know, it's uncomfortable. And so he said, Joe Wright, totally does. different. What I really liked about Joe Wright filming that sex scene in the library was he was very specific about what he wanted us to do. And he was like, and that's great because all of a sudden now we have our marching orders and we, you know, do. And so, um, and so at one point, uh, in the,

in the sex scene, he's like, Joe sort of like barking out like commands as they go along of just like, do this, do this, do that. And then he goes, and finally at one point he just goes, Kira, wank him off. What was great about Atonement was Joe was very, very, very on the ball with what he wanted, so when you were doing something, it was at his behest

so much so that he was... I'm on, that... Yes, I am. So much so that at one point he was getting so into and telling us what to do as he was off camera. He went, all right, Kira, wonk him off. And he just asked me permission to say that, John me. Sorry, Gary.

And here we are. I'm on Parky. My granny's been waiting for this for years. And so, and Kira tells the story on Graham Norton. Basically, sort of the same setup, except in Kira's, it's just like, Kira, wank him off. So it's like, I don't know, there's a scene. We're having sex up against the bookshelf, as you do.

And it's with the lovely James McAvoy, who's a friend. he's really lovely and it's always awkward because he's a friend and that's awkward and we're in the middle of it and suddenly this voice just goes Kira, wank him off and it's just so fantastically charming

that the both of these actors sort of like remember that specific moment from that and it makes me like them and it makes me like Joe Wright so much and makes me love atonement even more but yeah I'll definitely

I'll thread the clips in there because so good so I always think about that a little bit when I watch that scene in Atonement of just like

Kira, wank him off but anyway Oscar nomination We are stanched Atonement Defenders It took a while for people to come around to that movie

because everybody wrote it off as stuffy British period drama when that's not at all what that movie is You and I have I think a lot of

experience with people brushing off a lot of really good movies with the epithet of Oscar bait, right? Oscar bait for so many people is this like dirty term or whatever. And I saw somebody, I saw a tweet the other day that really annoy me where it's just like, what I don't understand about Oscar bait is like, do people like being baited? Like, do you, do you like, do you like tweet? We do talk? I know. It's so obnoxious because it's just like, as, first of all, as if you've never been catered to or pandered to in your movie taste. But no, everything that you like is from a purely objective and not at all like pandered two plates. First of all, fuck up. People also need to realize when they're talking about the difference between marketing

and an actual movie, because that's the disconnect with atonement. People, when they say they don't like Atonement, they're talking about the marketing of the movie. Watch that movie again. That is a movie with like really deep themes that have, and like maybe partly my relationship. with it was like, I had a really strong relationship with that book where I'm like walking around sobbing, reading that book. Right. But also, you're telling on yourself and your complete lack of discernment when you say that you cannot watch a movie that is a costume drama or a historical epic or a biopic or

whatever, and you cannot watch a movie like that and decide for yourself whether it succeeds or fails under its own merits, and all of a sudden you have to brush everything aside as Oscar bait because you've been able to, you know, figure out the touchstones and the sort of the tells of what makes Oscar bait. Like, fuck off. Like, I'm sorry. You just, you just seem like a very stupid person. People don't make those movies to be like, you know, we're just really trying to get awards for this.

That might be why those movies get funded because producers or production companies see the potential in that. But, like, the storytellers aren't going after that. There is a movie in this year's Oscar race that I was listening to an interview with the filmmaker that I was like, hmm. What was it? I find your intentions in making this movie suspect. It's a movie that we disagree on. Is it Belfast?

No. Okay. It's a movie that is not going to get an Oscar nomination that we disagree on, and I don't feel like shitting on this movie. Oh, okay. So I'll tell you off mic. Tell me off mic. All right.

Anyway. But people don't make movies with those intentions, especially costume dramas. They're like just if it feels like awards-based. to us as a viewer, that's not what the movie's problems are. The movie's problems are they didn't develop their themes well enough. They didn't get into the core of this character. They didn't make us care about these people. That's the fucking problem.

Yes. Yep. Oh, they just wanted Oscars. Like, no. All right. Yes, people tell them themselves. So, anyway. Oscar nomination for Atonement.

She moves on. I have not seen City of Ember. That movie sort of came and went. That's the one where Bill Murray is weirdly in it, right? Yes, yes. It is a kind of a fantasy adventure kind of a thing. Anyway, didn't see it. So the next thing, the next big thing that she's in.

The tomb in the middle of Sir Shoronan's house. Indeed. In terms of her potential Oscar nominations is The Lovely Pones. Right. She takes the, you get the, whatever, momentum, I almost said motivation, momentum of the Oscar nomination. and it moves into the Lovely Bones, which, again, we cannot talk about on this podcast tragically because the Oscars had the extreme poor taste that year of nominating Stanley Tucci's performance when they could have just nominated his Julian Julia performance.

We've talked about this. It's very stupid. Anyway, I would love to talk about the Lovely Bones because... Do we think Sershia was, like, sixth or seventh? Because she got a critic's choice and BafTA. Bafta as well, yes. The Bafta nomination, I think, is what's telling. I would love to sort of dig into...

of that because, yes, it's, it's, there was so much expectation on it. The book was so huge. Peter Jackson was such an interesting choice to do something like that coming off of the Lord of the Rings and King Kong and, and just the production history of that movie, the way Lynn Ramsey was involved and got uninvolved is partly why it would be so. The Ryan Gosling of it all. Like, yes, absolutely, absolutely. The Ryan Gosling of it is really fascinating too, because, Because, like, there are disparate stories that are told about it. Oh, and, like, from his perspective. Oh, I was trying to, I was doing this weight gain to appear older, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But apparently, it's come out that Peter Jackson was like, no, Peter Jackson hated Ryan Gosling and fired him because he was essentially a pill. A pill. Yeah, I could see, I could see both of those things being in some ways true. So, yes, that's very. interesting. Anyway, so then she's, it goes into kind of a quiet period for her. This is when I always talk about this where it really felt like Sersha Ronan and Mia Vassikowska were competing for the same sort of slot in the Hollywood ecosystem. And for a while there, Mia was winning. She was in Stoker. She was in Kids Are All Right. She was like, and Sersha was in a lot of things

that got a lot of less attention. She was in the way back, the Peter Weir movie, that is about people walking and having horrible, dirty, busted up feet, and it is unpleasant to watch. But some people liked it, but mostly people didn't see it. Hannah, which is another Joe Wright movie, which fucking rules, and she fucking rules in it, and it did not get the kind of attention that it deserved to get. And I will forever scream in people's faces about how Hannah deserved better because it was great. fucking score rips, man. Oh, my God.

The Chemical Brothers score to that movie is so good. Holy shit, yes. And it's just, it's a much stranger movie than even that you think. Even when you're told that the premise is about a young girl raised in the wild by her father to be an assassin, essentially, it's even weirder than that. The Tom Hollander of it all, the Kate Blanchett of it all. It's so good. I would love to see Blanchett in another Joe Wright movie, though I'm kind of falling off the Joe Wright train lately, but I would love to see Blanchet work with him again. It's fine. He'll be fine. He'll

direct something great again. All right. Did you ever see... Serenau sucks. I didn't love Serenau. I wouldn't say it sucks, but... I think it's his worst movie. Oh, wow. Worse than Pan. Absolutely. Wow. All right. Have you ever seen Violet and Daisy, the movie with her and Alexis Plyle? No, Violet and Daisy is the movie that I always confused with Ginger and Rosa. See, I've seen Ginger and Rosa. Um, But, yeah, Violet and Daisy, I've never seen, even though the cast is wild. Sertia Ronan, Alexis Bledell, Danny Trejo, Marianne, Jean-Baptiste, James Gandalfini, Tatiana Maslani is in it.

I should watch this. This sounds like some shit I'd like. I don't even know what the premise of it is. And, oh, they're assassins. Yeah, I confuse it with Ginger and Rosa, or I did at the time. Right. Ginger and Rosa is just about, like, two girls growing up together in the 60s and even. Yeah, like, they couldn't be more different.

It's just, like, you know, just. movies that exist only on the periphery of the periphery. Chris, when I finally come to Columbus to visit, we'll watch Violet and Daisy. We'll have a time of it. The one that I always talk about that nobody's ever seen is the Neil Jordan movie Byzantium, where she and Gemma Arderton play vampires on a coastal town. It rules. More people should see it.

It's rainy and romantic and spooky, scary, and she and Gemma Arderton fucking rule in it, especially Gemma Arderton. She's so good. I saw that one at the Tribeca Film Festival, and nobody talked about it, and it barely got released, and I love it so much. It's so good. She did that movie The Host, not the Bong Joon Ho host, but the... Not the good host.

Stephanie Meyer host. That is really bad. Which is, like, the one time that Sersha really kind of steps into the standard, under expectation for a teen actor, teen actress in doing this era of Y.A. adaptation that, like, is in a genre. And, like, obviously, it just, it didn't work for her. I mean, she got saddled with one of the, like, worst properties to be doing that. But, yeah. The good thing about it is people forgot about it almost immediately. Like, it really did leave people's cultural memories, which is good. But she also did the Kevin McDonald movie How I Live Now that I did not seen.

Which I believe is also a YAA adaptation, but I know people that like that movie. The thing about this era of Searses movies is she's making these movies with fairly interesting directors that end up being like either the worst movies that they've done, like Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, or the most anonymous movies that they've done. we're like Peter Weir's the way back. Nobody really ever talks about that. Byzantium, nobody ever talks about that when they talk about Neil Jordan. Nobody ever talks about how I live now when they talk about Kevin McDonald. And it's just sort of, it's a very kind of quiet and under the radar period, even though she's sometimes giving really interesting performances, as in Hannah and Byzantium. And then I think the rebound sort of starts with Grand Budapest Hotel, where like, it's not like she's the one walking out of

Grand Budapest Hotel with, like, the lion's share of attention. But it's a pretty big role in that movie. And it's obviously a huge Oscar success. Best Picture nominee gets a bunch of other nominations. And Grand Budapest Hotel is like the movie where, like, she's entering this era where the camera absolutely loves her. Yes. I think that's right.

She's also in the Ryan Gosling movie Lost River that I have not seen. It is, I know it has its defenders, but like. It is a very try-hard movie. He wants to be making a David Lynch movie. He wants to be making a Nick Reffin movie. There are some amazing images in it, but it is. I do feel like I should at some point watch it. Oh, yeah.

Check it out just for the artifact of it. Yes. Yeah. I certainly would rather watch that movie for the first time than watch Only God Forgives, which I've also never seen, but also just seems like a movie that would be unpleasant for me to watch. Whereas Lost River- isn't unpleasant, whereas only God forgives is.

Yeah, yeah. And then 2015 is the big sort of search's back moment with Brooklyn, which premieres at Sundance and is not the talk of that year's Sundance, but really perseveres and stays in the Oscar conversation sort of when it resurfaces in the fall. And she gets... Sundance is a weird place to launch that movie. I think, whereas if they had launched it at, you know, like Venice or Toronto or even Telluride, that movie probably would have been massive if it had, you know, been dropped on

audiences for the first time at that place. But like, it's not the vibe of Sundance. Yeah, no, I think that's right. It does get the Best Picture nomination, though, along with nominations for Sertia and Best Actress and Adapted Screenplay. So that is, I think that's the where all of a sudden she's almost 10 years past Atonement, eight years past Atonement, and it's just like, oh, she's still got it. She wasn't just this sort of flash in the pan, child performance or whatever. She's, as it turns out, one of the best of her generation. And now she's in this totally different.

It's a romantic movie. She's a romantic lead in this. And, you know, all of a sudden she's on our radar. And then comes 2017, like we said, at the same Tiff, she's got on Chesel Beach and Lady Bird. And on paper, you would look at that and be like, oh, on Chesel Beach is going to be the one that she's going to be in an Oscar conversation for. And Lady Bird is going to be an interesting curiosity by this weird actress, Greta Gerwig, who we don't know if she can, you know, direct anything. And, you know, is this just going to be? I remember.

Isn't on paper what Oscar goes? for. Yeah, exactly. And it's, and right, it's, it's, it's a sort of, it's a domestic, a drama, very small, very sort of humble. And I remember being interested in Lady Bird, but I had, I mean, I was as dumb as anybody about that movie and just being like, oh yeah, that's not going to be like, a big deal. It's going to be a small, I love Greta Gerwig more than anybody. And I was just like, it's not going to be a big deal. And, and. That was the one that was, like, desperate to get into it, because, like, you couldn't get tickets to do, to it, like, the press screenings were filling up. It wasn't until that happened that I became like really, really interested in seeing it.

Because I think a part of me was, a part of me has always been very protective of Greta Gerwig from a very early point because I really loved her. First time I saw her in House of the Devil, I was just like, she's amazing. And then I loved her in the Whit Stillman movie. Shit, what's the title of that movie? Damsles in Distress. damsels in distress. I liked Lola Verses. I, of course, loved Francis Haat and Mistress America insanely so much, so much. And I know that all of those movies have a ton of supporters and then some pretty significant detractors, because it's a very specific, she has a very

specific vibe, and it's a very kind of, like, quirky girl vibe that a lot of people are really allergic to. And I've always been such a fan. And not only such a fan, but, like, Francis Haugh really, really got to me. And really, like, I love that movie with my whole heart and soul. And so the detractors of her really kind of, like, you know, needled me, like, sort of, like, stuck me in between my ribs, right? And so going into Lady Bird, I was like, oh, God, people are going to maybe be really mean about this if it's not good. And, and, And I kind of wanted to maybe subconsciously avoid it because of that. But then it became such a must-see movie at that TIF that I saw it at one of the later

screenings of that one. And I was so part of me relieved, but also part of me so thrilled by obviously the thing of it because it's such a fantastic movie. And I remember when you got out of that movie, you like wouldn't talk to me about it because we saw, what was it, that you were, like, hustling from to see together? And I was like, but just tell me about the movie! And, like, you didn't... I can always tell when you really love something,

because you hold those cards so close to your chest. I'm very protective of it. I'm very protective of the things that I love. I don't want other people shitting on them. And I needed to be sure that people wouldn't before I sort of put my heart out there for Lady Bird. But, oh, boy, oh, boy, did I love it. I think Katie had seen it before either one of us had seen it. And Katie sort of was just like, Joe, you're going to love that movie.

And I was just like, oh, I hope so. And she was, of course, right. And obviously, that's the one that, like, that's the one where, like, she gets the SNL hosting thing. Like, she breaks through into the mainstream if she hadn't already been, like, Brooklyn was sort of, like, confirmation with cinnophiles and whatever that, like, she's back. But then Lady Bird kind of goes everywhere. And, yeah. And then. It's surprisingly, you're right.

It's surprisingly few movies that she's made in the now almost five years since Lady Bird. Nothing makes me feel old than Lady Bird being five years old because Lady Bird was like my high school experience. Christine's already graduated from NYU, Chris. Like it's... Oh, my God. I know. All right. But it's The Seagull, which we've talked about.

We both saw and is not really good and she's not really that good in it. Mary Queen of Scots, which I think is a bad movie that she acquits herself pretty well in, I would say. I think it's watchable. I don't think that movie is as bad as a lot of people said it was. I remember being the person that's like, because Mary Queen of Scots was so delayed, and that's another movie that we can't talk about because it got Oscar nominations and almost got Marco Rabi an Oscar nomination. Almost. Very close. Yeah. I remember being, like, because it kept being pushed, it was, like, supposed to be at Toronto, and they pulled it right before it was, like, announced, and that was the rumor or whatever. Yeah.

And, like, it was being held out, and, like, you know, and, like, you know, and listeners know how the whisper campaigns began, you know, you know, and, like, the buzz on that got really bad, yeah. But there was so much pressure on that movie because, like, the photos of her in costume were released, like, while Lady Bird is in theaters and stuff. So it's building up the anticipation for this movie. And then, like, the fact that nobody's seen it and it's not at a festival, you know, creates, you know, bad vibes around a movie. And I remember being the person that's like, no, guys, it's going to be really good. You watch. Like, what if this ends up working? And, like, it's the late breaking great movie.

And then when I saw it, I was like, you know what? It is more peculiar than you think it's going to be, which I think is the one interesting thing about it. I do think that some people's problems. with it though because it is it's not entirely not my problem of it like it's it doesn't succeed on the level that I think it wants to yeah it almost needs to be like not quite Moulin-Rouge level but it needs to like kind of pump up that volume of yeah yeah you know it's anachronistic costuming you know that it it needs like to be a little bit more of what it is to work 2019 she does Little Women

Once again with Greta Gerwig It fucking rules That is a movie where I believe I walked out of my screening And I texted you and Katie immediately And was just like This movie is the goddamn best It's so Oh my God, I was on a cloud walking out of that movie

It's so exuberant It's so full of life Wild to me that like There was never any real momentum around Sersha To get her like I mean She's so young, which is preventing people from thinking of her in an overdue type of way. Here's the other thing, though.

Little Women was one of the last movies to screen that year and one of the last movies to get released that year. And by that time, like, Renee had that Oscar sewn up by the end of September. Like, that was, it was, the story was too good. At that point, it didn't matter that people maybe didn't love Judy. And some of them liked it better than others. and I think it's actually pretty okay. I would say pretty good, actually. Anyway, it didn't matter.

By that time, the storyline of Renee Zellweger had gone away. She had won the Oscar early, had gone away, had sort of quasi-quit acting, although it's one of those things. It was just like, how long was she actually gone? Anyway, had the whole brouhaha with people making fun of her plastic surgery with her face. And by the time the good reviews for Judy came along, everybody was just like, what a great triumph for Renee, coming back from people being such assholes about her for a while. And her previous Oscar wasn't supporting, and she's obviously a leading lady, so she, you know, it wouldn't be overkill. And what a great story to have her win a second Oscar this year.

And by the end of September, like, people like dusting their hands off and just like, well, that's it. We've got one. We've got one squared away. And by the time little women came along, it was, the question wasn't, could anybody beat Renee? It's like, who else is going to get nominated? And that's sort of this, that was the ceiling of it. And I wonder if the timing of those things had been different, if little women had been the one to come out in the fall festivals. And Judy had been the one to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, till the last minute.

Or even if little women had been at the fall festivals, because little women was ready. Little women had an offer to be at Cannes. and they turned it down. I could still see Renee winning in those circumstances, but it would have been a race. And then all of a sudden it comes into play that this is Sersh's fourth nomination. And is it her time? Has she paid her dues enough? There's also a certain level of little women where the star of little women is Greta Gerwig.

That is true. Because it's, you know, it's a feat of adaptation. Like, it's remarkably well directed considering, like, what people expect of that material. Yep, yep, yep, totally. I think that's right. Even though Sears is great in it and, like, is a really fantastic performance. But you're right. The adaptation of it is a star.

Florence Pew really, like, steals the show in a lot of ways. And yes, I think you're right. When I watched it this Christmas, when she's the line of, I have very small feet, the finest in the family is truly the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard. What a great movie. I should have watched that over Christmas. I should watch that every Christmas. What a wonderful movie. Anyway, we talked a little bit about Aminite.

We've talked about Aminite a lot on this podcast for having not seen it. For me having not seen it and for us never covering it. We'll get to it. Is that the movie that we said would be our first class of 2020 movie? Is it? I don't know if we made specific promises. I mean, we're coming up on that. I think we're actually going to be late. No, because we don't do, we don't do it until after the Oscar ceremony. I think that's right.

We've been doing this so long. I forget our own rules. Our rules. Our rules are made to be broken, Chris. You know that. And then, yeah, she's in the French dispatch for, like, one scene. She plays a, uh, uh, hooker. What is her, what is her? She's a, sort of. She's listed as junk. She's a, she's a sort of, but she has the air of a, just because she's cast in that role. Of a flop house, sort of a flop house lady at night, right? Future St. Polly Girl.

Exactly. She's fun, but it's like, it's half a scene, essentially, that she's in. And yeah, and then we'll see what, see how they run turns out to be in the future. But yes, we love Sershah. This is not in the top ten of movies that I will think about. When I think about Sersia, speaking of on Chesla Beach, but, yeah, I don't know. Much more fun to talk about her career, I think, than to talk about her performance in this movie, which, again, a lot of it's out of her hands.

The movie doesn't invest as much in her as it should. Well, because it doesn't invest in her, because it doesn't ask as much of her, it does feel like a little bit of a greatest hit Sersha performance where it's like, It does kind of underline the Sertiaisms in a way that I'm, like, incredibly watchable, but... Go into the Sertia is maybe... I've never felt like Sertia has had crutches until I've watched this performance. What would you say those crutches would be? What are those Sertia is that she brings out?

How do you even describe it? Just certain type of, like, not even facial tics, but, like, the way she'll look at a scene partner when she's, like, experiencing disappointment or when she's not in control of the scene. You know, like, if I could do a slideshow, if podcasts were a visual medium, I could do a PowerPoint presentation. Yeah. No, I agree with that. You wanted to talk about Bleaker Street as a production company.

Yeah. Okay, so this movie got picked up by Bleaker Street, released in the early summer of that Yeah. Bleaker Street is one of those small indie distributors that doesn't have a ton of money and their movies don't necessarily make a ton of money. Yeah. But, like, they're always on the outskirts of awards. And it feels like it's because they don't have the funds to really, you know, put the oomph behind a campaign. And it's like they also sometimes get the movies that, you know, nobody really is going to bat for them. Or if they do, it's always like something like disobedience that's like, after the time people are like justice for disobedience, you know?

They're a younger company than I thought they were actually looking at them where they're only really started in 2015. But there are some movies in there, some bad ones. Trumbo is on that list and I don't want to. Trumbo is one of their few movies that have actually gotten an Oscar movie. I was going to say, perversely that in Captain Fantastic, which is like, when a movie gets picked up by them and like something like mass this year and people are like oh this is a surefire like Oscar nominee I'm like this is this is a distributor that's like put in the effort for things before and they don't get Oscar nominations so by the way looking at the bleaker street list I am reminded of the film we actually said is going to be our first 2020 movie and that is wild mountain time oh that is going to be our first bees yep is it bees in the movie? I will find out. Neither one of us have seen it. So we're going to find out together, Chris. That will be our first 2020 movie. But yeah, it's stuff like I'll see you in my dreams, which is a wonderful movie. Blytheana gives a great performance. But right, they did not sort of have the musculature to make that happen. It's certainly not to shit on the good people of Bleaker Street. But they've had movies that it's like, if anybody else had distributed it, it feels like, not anybody. But, you know, like, if, uh, a focus or a lion's gate or someone else had distributed Leave No Trace, that movie would be

an Oscar nominee, you know, like an example like that. That's true, the Debra Granic movie Leave No Trace, which is super fantastic, and I really love it. But yeah, it's a lot of movies where you maybe don't hear about it right away, and then there's a little bit of like a, if not word of mouth, then just sort of, it sort of lingers in the conversation among people who see a lot of movies. You really have to be a person who sees a lot of

movies to see a good number of Bleaker Street movies. But some of their... Because a lot of their movies don't stay in theaters very long because they don't end up making money. And even stuff like that does, like Logan Lucky, doesn't make as much as it should. Which is wild because it's like it's one of the

better later Soderberg movies. It's bricking rules. It's such a crowd pleaser. Logan Lucky is wonderful. Like people like, If you didn't see Logan Lucky in theaters, I do feel bad for you because it's so fun. Like, it's so, it's such a good time of a movie. What else?

They've released a lot of movies in the pandemic that I like. I love Together Together Together Together. Together's great. Patty Harrison's fantastic in that movie. They released the finest romance of 2021, Dream Horse. Dream Horse. The movie that is not about Tony Collette falling in love with a horse, but it is. says that it is. Dream Horse, the movie that brought me back into theaters in 2021. I was so happy

about that. I forgot that was your first movie in theaters. I never saw Supernova, which was the Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth, gay relationship movie. They did The World to Come, which I still have not seen, but I will soon. I like that movie a lot. Which is Vanessa Kirby and Catherine Waterston on the frontier in a romance. Yes. Sure. Let's see that. Okay.

Also, weirdly, they have, they did together together. They released that in April. And then in August, they just released a movie called Together, which is the... Gritty reboot. That was the James McAvoy Sharon Horgan COVID movie that people were like, it's a COVID movie. Absolutely not will I ever see that movie. Yeah. I'm your man.

What do people think when they're making these COVID movies like that? I don't know. I don't know. What do they think the shelf life is for this? Are people going to watch that even? in three years from now? Here's what's infuriating. You can't find two more charming people to me than James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan, and I would

probably watch them in just about anything. And the one thing that I wouldn't is COVID relationship fraught drama, or whatever dramedy, I don't even know how comedic it is, but like, no, like anything else but that, literally anything else but that. Also, Sharon Hogan was the. Weirdly cast as the homophobic teacher in, um, it's not called there's something about Jamie, but it's, uh, you know what I'm talking about Jamie? Everybody's talking about Jamie. Right. Which I thought was, talking about Jamie. You know who everybody should be talking about Richard E. Grant in that movie and nothing else. Like, he's great in that movie. That's why I feel bad for not having seen it yet. He's wonderful in it. But like, it's an odd casting choice because I, Sharon Horgan, I think is such a, like, has a great charisma. And so whatever. whatever, and just to, like, sort of shunned her away as the homophobic teacher was a little bit of

her to the point where, for a while in that movie, I kept being like, but does she have a point? And it's just like, no, no, no, she's bad. However, Sharon Hogan is allowed to say the F slur. Oh, yeah. She's allowed. Yeah. Also, have I said my thing about Sharon Horgan in Game Night before that she and Billy Magnuson need to star in a romantic comedy together because their chemistry in that movie is so fucking good?

I wanted to like them in Game Night more than I do. Oh, Chris, you should have because they were great. I don't love Game Night the way that everybody else does, but I do love Rachel McAdams and Jesse Plemons in Game Night. I mean, they are also great, but Game Night is great in itself. Anyway, we're not here to argue about Game Night. The one movie that I think could be Bleaker Street, that has the potential to be Bleaker Street's third movie ever nominated for an Oscar,

that I think people are underestimating the chances are in international feature this. year with I'm your man. That is a movie that I wanted to love a lot more than I ended up like it. Same. Because even when it does the unexpected thing, it does it in a cliche way. However, I feel like I like that movie a lot less than people do. It was a movie that I'm like, if it makes the bake-off list for international feature, I do think it's a threat for an actual nomination because it's so different than

everything else that's going to be nominated there. And I think it's accessible. People are going to watch it because there's, you know, an English language star in it. Dan Stevens is really good in it. I love, I mean, I love Dan Stevens. And him playing the role of handsome robot, like, yes, obviously, yes. Handsome robot speaking German, which I think is like,

yeah. It's, you know, it's not not impressive, but it's the type of thing that, like, the academy is going to be more impressed by than we are. Yeah. Anyway, Bleaker Street, the more that I look at their list, the more I'm just like, yeah, they're kind of low-key one of my, kind of one of my favorites doing stuff today just in terms of like small movies that remain small. And a lot of the times that's to their detriment that they remain so small. But there's good stuff in there.

Disobedience is a great movie. The assistant is great. Disobedience is great. The assistant's amazing. Yeah, just lots of really good stuff. All right, anyway. Chesel, Chesle, Chesel. I guess we could talk a little bit about Dominique Cook,

although there's not a ton to talk about. He's a theater director. He directed that version of Follies with Amel de Staunton that I watched on maybe YouTube or something like that. Where she is good, but she mostly just barks. Yes, both of those things are true. She is both good and does sort of mostly bark. Yeah.

The interesting thing I think about Dominic Cook directing this movie is that it's his, he's a theater director, it's his debut, and the first director who is attached to this was Sam Mendes, who, like, is kind of the, you know, golden example of somebody who makes the stage to film leap and gets, like, a ton of praise from it. Oh, yeah. Like, he's, he's threaded that needle as well as pretty much anybody. Yeah. I like Sam Mindy's. I know a lot of people are down on San Mendez, but I like San Mendez. I almost can't imagine Sam Mendez making a movie like this anymore because, and like, I want him to. I want him to make another revolutionary road because, like, it just seems post-Bond movies.

He's just kind of making these huge boy movies that I love less and less. I really liked 1917. I know we very much differ on that. I thought it was incredibly impressive and really well done and I thought it was great and one of the things about him being back in an awards conversation with that movie is we got to see the grand kaleidoscope

of people, especially Americans, trying to pronounce his name, which I think is very funny. Because I remember during the whole American beauty thing, everybody seemed to be settled on Mendez, just like as if there were another E at the end there, Mendes. And then I think because Americans heard British people saying Mendes, or like Mendes, like not, you know, in a very sort of like, almost like clipped way or whatever.

Americans then started saying Mendes as if he was like Eva Mendes, which I'm pretty sure is not correct. And makes him sound ethnic in a way that he is not. And it's, I don't know, it's just kind of fascinating to me. Anytime I hear an American say Sam Mendez. But anyway, he was going to direct some movie. And then Mike Newell was going to direct this movie. Another sort of, I don't know what a Mike Newell movie is in terms of like a vibe, right? He's directed four weddings and a funeral.

He's directed Donnie Brasco. He's directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He directed our first this Had Oscar Buzz movie, Mona Lisa Smile. And I don't really, I struggle to find a throughline with, like, what is a Mike Newell movie about? Enchanted April is a Mike Newell movie. Well, because he... The Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time is a Mike Shul movie. He seems like a studio, like, standby, but he's almost not.

Like, he doesn't... The credits would tell you that he's, like, a journeyman studio director. But I don't, like, because, like, he attached himself to this movie. I don't think it was like a studio was like, let's get Michael Newell to do this now that Sam Mendez's left. He tends to direct movies where the authorial voice tends to be either a franchise, like Harry Potter and the Gobol Fire, or a writer, like when it's, uh, Four Weddings and a Funeral. That's a, that's a Richard Curtis movie.

Um, Donnie Brascoe is a Paul Atenacio movie more than, uh, anything else. It's interesting. Tony Brasco is an Anne Heshe movie. How dare you. Yes. He also directed that movie Pushing Tin, which I saw at the time and don't really remember a ton about, except for the fact that it was part of the Angelina Jolie

ascendance. And Kate Blanchett. Yes, but it was the same year that Angelina Jolie won the Oscar for Girl Interrupted specifically. So I always think of it in that, like, in conversation with, like, Gia and what was the other movie that she did Playing by heart

Playing by heart, yeah Can't wait for to talk about playing by heart We gotta do that, we really do, we keep threatening. Artifact And of course Mike Newell directed Our Favorite movie that exists as a title And yet we've also seen it The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Not the potato movie! Oh my God, throwing it back to the early early fascinations on this podcast, The Potato Movie. Yes, exactly. So, yeah, this movie on Chesel Beach, while it is directed by Dominic Cook, does also, in that way, feel like an Ian McEwen movie more than anything else.

He had two movies at Tiff that year that he had written the screenplay for based on his own novels, on Chesla Beach and also the Children Act, which did not get released for at least another year. And it was very quiet. kind of like put out on, I want to say Amazon? No, it was, I'm pretty sure that that was one of, remember when A24 had a partnership with

DirecTV, where people were like, this A24 movie doesn't exist, or A24 isn't doing anything for this movie. And it's like, no, this is their partnership with DirecTV. It is meant more to be placed on direct TV than to be placed in theaters. They also had the deal with Amazon, which is what makes me think it is Amazon, because like all of the A-24 movies eventually made it on to Amazon Prime. And now it's Showtime that they're partnered with. Which is a bummer because it's less accessible.

Yeah. Children Act is not bad, but also kind of odd and belongs in that kind of subset of movies like the kindergarten teacher, which is like, we're going to tell the story of a dissatisfied woman by her sort of intense relationship with a child. And she plays a judge, right? In Britain, they're still called judges. Barrister, something. I don't know, whatever the fuck. I think the barrister's a lawyer. I think you're right.

Anyway, the wig. She's, you know, she was the wig. Anyway, gets really invested in this case where a teenage boy played by Finn Whitehead is dying of cancer or something. His parents are religious and won't allow medical treatment, and should there be an intervention? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, Emma Thompson's quite good in it. It's not a great movie, but it's better than on Chesel Beach, I will say.

Of the two Ian McEwen movies at Tiff, 2017, that's the better one. He's an interesting sort of character, Ian McEwen. Kind of, obviously, wrote the novel Atonement that was made a new movie, wrote the novel Enduring Love that was made into a Roger Michelle movie that is really interesting and kind of dark and unsettling. You love that movie, and I need to catch up to it. You should watch it. It's a movie that begins with a hot air balloon disaster, and not many movies can say that. And really kind of like strikingly filmed. Like Roger Michelle was was on it with that one. And then becomes this sort of like psychological thriller where Risi Fons becomes obsessed with Daniel Craig. And really

interesting. Ian McEwen also I learned just by doing my research for this. I had no idea. Wrote the screenplay to the good son. The McCauley Calkin Elijah Wood. A movie where 50% of the vibe is what if McCauley

Culkin said the F word? What if McCauley Calkin said fuck? And he does. He tells Elijah Wood, don't fuck with me. It's amazing. I included that when I did trivia one time of my audio round of iconic fucks. People who say fuck. Yes. had no idea what a wild and like completely like wasn't part of an era where he was doing like screenplays for American movies or anything like that like no just sort of sticks out as its own little island in his career that he did screenplay for the good son absolutely amazing of his earlier screenplays is the cement garden or is it the comfort of strangers that's the incest one oh I don't know

I have not seen... One of those was adapted... Let me try to look at it. Oh, it's the Cement Garden. Because, like, he was, like, controversial writer, right? For a while because he did, like, an incest book, right? Oh. Comfort of Strangers, yeah, was directed by Paul Schrader.

A screenplay by Harold Pinter, actually, interesting, with Christopher Walken and Natasha Richardson. I have not seen that movie, but it was... 1990, played the Cannes Film Festival. That's interesting. Yeah, Cement Garden was... Give me a second. 1993 film, starring Charlotte Gainsborg.

Love her? And it was about incest. Interesting. Weird. Any last notes about on Chesel Beach? Oh, gosh. Well, I did want to bring up... does include one of my favorite pieces of music in a movie, which is the...

Wake Up Alone by Amy Winehouse? Strangely, when that needle drop happened, I was like, what the fuck? Because you get an Amy Winehouse needle drop before the subtitle telling you that it's in 2007. Yeah, yes, that was odd. You're right. And because for a moment, you see this shot of Billy Howell's character, and before you realize that he's wearing old age makeup, you were like, did something happen? Was he in an accident? Did he burn part of his face? Like, what's going on? From a beautiful mind school of old age makeup on Chesel Beach. It does not, I will

say, when it's shown in daylight that very first time, it does not, it's like day drag. It's just, it's very, it's surprising. No, it's the, it's the Bach cello suite that shows up in everything, the thing that I call the one cello piece. because it is the one piece of cello music that is used in film and television, and it is absolutely everywhere. I guarantee you, if you don't know it by name, you absolutely know it if you hear it. I will 100% put an audio clip in it. I mostly associate it with you can count on me. It shows up throughout you can count on me.

It is so beautiful. Because I love that movie so much, I love this piece of music so much. But it's in Master and Commander in the Far Side of the World when they show up at the Galapagos. It's in Still Alice. It's in the pianist, I believe the cellist that is a character in that movie plays that thing. It's in, like, high-brow low-brow. It's in The Hangover Part 2, right? It's in Factory Girl.

It's in just a billion TV shows. Any time I will see it in anything, I will 100% tweet about it. I need you to make a New York Magazine, high-brow, low-brow grid of movies that use it. That use the Bach cello suite. It's, it's, I should. But yeah, if you ever see me tweeting about the one cello piece, this is what I mean. This piece of music is what I mean. You've absolutely heard it before.

It's sort of, it's not used to particularly striking effect on Chesel Beach, but anytime I hear it, I am Leonardo DiCaprio in, once upon a time in Hollywood pointing at the screen and just being like, there it is. It's the one cello piece. Yeah, what else about this movie. Yeah, what else about this movie, can I say? It was better reviewed than I thought it would be when I looked up the A Rotten Tomato Score. It's got a Rotten Tomato score in the 60s, even though I mostly remember just hearing from people

who did not like it, but had fresh reviews from Kenneth Turan, Stephanie Zaharick, A.O. Scott. Like, people I genuinely, you know, respect and like their opinions. They weren't, like, effusive reviews. The most effusive, actually, is your good buddy, oh, and Glyberman, who seemed to really love it. My nemesis. But, yeah, kind of went away very quickly, did not, it was very easy to kind of shuffle this away,

especially after, or in the wake of, because it didn't get released until 2018, in the wake of Cursa's... Didn't even make a million dollars at the box office before, you know, it would be a miracle of a movie like this made a million dollars at the box office. Right, exactly. Oh, the one thing we didn't mention is that when it was going to be a Sam Mendes movie,

see, I did it, yes, Mendie's movie. It was going to start Carrie Mulligan, which I don't know if she fares any better. I think she's still probably a subject to the same problems with the, with the characterization that Sersha had. So I'm kind of like good for Carrie for dodging that bullet, I guess. Because in 2017, she instead did, or was it 2018, Wild Life? the great unheralded Carrey Mulligan performance.

Still mad that nobody got behind that one. Her promising young woman nomination is for wildlife. I think she's also pretty great in promising young women. But... I do too, but I think a lot of what she's doing

in promising young woman she does better in wildlife. Interesting. I don't necessarily disagree with you in that. But I do love them both. And, oh, she's so good in wildlife. Anyway, yeah, maybe that's all we have to say about on Chesel Beach. I'm glad we finally did it.

Rakata Titi, Tata. Yeah, I'm pussy bitch. And, yeah. Oh, here's the other thing I want to say before we're done. Samuel West plays Sears' father. Who we find out eventually way too late in the movie, I feel like, because it really does feel like a Scooby-Doo mystery, where, you know, it was you all along, creepy Samuel West as her father. We find out that he probably molested her, and that's the source of her sexual dysfunction,

which is kind of a grossly, overly prescriptive way of rendering and something like that. He plays such an obvious sniveling creep, and he's also so similar to the Benedict Cumberbatch character in Atonement, that I was like, you know how you watch enough Richard Curtis movies? And you're just like, well, Richard Curtis obviously has a quirky sister with like pink hair and is super fun

because there's that character in every movie, in every one of his movies. There's somebody who fits that type. And now I'm just like, where is Ian McEwen drawing this one sniveling creep of a man from? Like, who did he like... This one sniveling child?

Encounter in his life that he like, maybe like watched something on television or like, you know, was a reporter covering a court proceeding or something like that? It's just like, where is this coming from? Because clearly there is a through line here from at least the Cumberbatch character in Atonement to the Simon West character in Onchasele Beach. But it's also just like, well, of course he's bad. Look at the way he acts. He looks like an actual rodent.

What was the other movie? This is what I want to say. What was the other movie that we've done with Samuel West where he's playing this character again? It's like this unfortunate typecast for this really talented actor. Oh, wait. Well, now I have to. and now I have to look and see because I don't remember it. Because Samuel West, when I think of Samuel West, I think of Howard's end.

It was so good. Well, he's in Hyde Park on Hudson as King George. That's the only other movie. We've definitely done another one. Or maybe we've just had this conversation about Samuel West before. Interesting. I don't remember it, but okay. Yeah, the only other movie of his that we've covered on this is Hyde Park.

on Hudson. But he could have definitely played that character as sort of a sniveling creep because that's sort of his deal. Anyway, um... Do you want to move on to the IMDB game? Let's... All right, explain to our listeners what the IMDB game is. Well, certainly. So every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game, wherein we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice only performances or non-acting credits, we mentioned that up front.

After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue, and if that is not enough, it just becomes a free for all of hints. That's the IMGB game. Joe, would you like to give her guess first? I'll guess first. Okay, cool. So for you, I was surprised we hadn't pulled this person. It was the first one that I thought of, because the other collaboration between Billy Howell

and Sertia Ronan, as we've discussed. is the Seagull. And much to my shame for this performer, when they didn't get an Oscar nomination, we were all hoping we would happen for. This is very, I think, instructive to our listeners who are confused about, like, what Oscar Buzz

is and how it works. I was like, guys, don't worry. It's going to happen for the Seagull. The Seagull is going to get Annette Benning her Oscar. Oh, Chris. Oh, how much guided you were. Because it is the greatest, one of the greatest

shames of my life. All right, we've never done... We've never done Annette Benning. Interesting. Poor Annette Benning. One of my least favorite opinions that I definitely hold is true, is that of all her Oscar nominations, she was never the

best in her category in any one of those years, which is a bummer. Because I do love her, and I do think spiritually she should have an Oscar. Like, she is a person who should have an Oscar. and she was actually the best in her category in a year she wasn't nominated for 20th century women. But I feel like in all her Oscar nominations, there was at least one person in her category that I probably would have given the award to instead. Anyway, well, the kids are all right, I think, is going to be one of them. It is.

Kids are all right. I don't even think she's the best performance. In the movie. She's great. She's great. No, she's great. But Julianne's even better. Julianne deserved what? the type of credit that Annette Benning got for that, maybe.

I agree. All right. American Beauty has got to be one of them. Correct. I don't think it's going to be all four of her Oscar nominations, but I think it's definitely those two. You don't think Bugsie, movie that fully exists in the culture and everyone sees and watches and discusses? She did not get nominated for Bugsie, surprisingly. Oh, wait, what am I?

Her four nominations. Well, I guess I just told you one of them is not there. Yeah. I don't think I would have guessed Bugs. but thank you anyway. No, once I'm done, we'll mention... Oh, I know which one. Yeah, it's not there.

Sorry. Also a movie that everyone watches, discusses, and, you know... The Gryfters is a good movie, I will say. The Grifters is a very good movie. Stephen Frears. But I'm not going to guess that, and I'm not going to guess being Julia. I will guess the American president. Oh, I did just give you the Gryfter.

Oh, it is the Gryft. Because I thought you were guessing it. Oh, well, all right. Pretend I did. The Gryfters is there. You are going to guess. correct being Julia is not there. You are incorrect. The American

President is not there. So you have one wrong guess, one correct guess that I gave you because I thought you were guessing it. Thanks. And you still need one wrong guess to get the year. I'm just going to guess 20th century women, even though I don't think it's going to be there. Perfect score. Congratulations.

Well, not a perfect score because I guess the American president. Well, we counted as a perfect score if you don't. Well, no, no, no. You do sometimes. Been a while since one of us has gotten one. I was trying to give you a layup, though this was a little difficult. It's got to be four for four for a perfect score. What beautiful justice, though, the 20th century women is on there? Beautiful justice. Honestly, I'm proud of us. And when I say us, I mean gay people for making that movie. I know it's not just gay people who love that movie, but like honestly, what a wonderful

little movie. I don't know. I do feel like if I was charged to say what my favorite performance of the past decade is. Yeah, it'd be up there. It's definitely one that I would be lingering on. I don't know what the answer would be, but it would be one that's top of mind. When I did, because when we did the blankies

at the end of 2019, we did Blankies of the decade. And I believe, I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure Nett Benning in 20th century woman was my performance of the decade. Fact check me, if I'm wrong on that,

listeners, but anyway. Fact check him. any Blankies who might be listening, and if he did not do that, please shame him, cyber bully him. Do that. Do all of that. I definitely. Do all of that. Yeah, looking forward to that. All right. All right, Chris, for you, I went, I tried to, I, there was a lot of different roads that ended in, in dead ends for me, because a lot of the people that I wanted to do, I was like, oh, I should do somebody from the good son. I should do Elijah Wood. No, it's just all Lord of the Rings. I should do Daniel Craig from Enduring Love.

No, it's all James Bond. I was just like, oh, you know, curses. But I went to the Big Dog in the yard with Ian McEwen. I went to Atonement. We've never done James McAvoy, surprisingly. I guess that means from your preamble that they're not all X-Men. I will say this. None of them are X-Men.

And there's also no television. Oh, that's good. That's good. I like that. is Atonement one of them It is Okay He's so good in Atonement

He's so hot in Atonement He's the hottest person Who's ever existed in Atonement He's so fucking hot in that movie I can't even deal with it It's so insane Problematic Fave That he is also

Like just unwell levels Of Hot in I just have to say this Because it's a problematic fave and he is hot in it, is trance on there. It's not, but he is, you're right. It's a problematic fave, and he is so hot in that movie, too. You're right.

It's an incorrect guess. Here's the thing about James McAvoy. He's hot and almost, like, atomic blonde, hot. Like, children of dude. Oh, God, I forgot about Atomic Blonde. That he's in it, at least. Yeah, I'm going to stop naming James McAvoy movies. Okay, so some of the franchises have to be there, and the other one that's

coming to my mind is the Shama Lans, so it has to be split. You are correct. It is split. Do I think glass. Split is a junky movie that I think he rules in. I think he's... I hate that movie. I think he gives such a good performance in that movie. I don't know.

I think he does. Anyway, go on. Continue. Hmm. Don't think disappearance of Eleanor Roe. Rigby is on there. I will say, without it being a specific hint, one of the two remaining movies is obscure enough that I almost didn't do James McAvoy because I was like that would be too hard. Oh, okay.

So one of these is going to be niche. Yeah. Like, real niche. Real niche. That's interesting. What about Wanted? Didn't Wanted show up for Angelina Joe Lee? I'm going to guess Wanted.

I would have probably guessed Wanted as well. but it is not. Okay. What are my years? All right. Your years are 20... Sorry, one second. 2006 and 2013.

2006 has to be Last King of Scotland. Correct. It is the Last King of Scotland. Okay, so 2013, after he's done the X-Men movies... Or at least... So this is the really obscure movie, obviously. obviously. Yeah.

Is it, what was the Frankenstein movie he did? What's that? The Frankenstein movie he did, that no one saw. I. Frankenstein or Victor Frankenstein, whatever one is called. It's not that one. Okay. I will say I had never heard of this movie before I looked up his IMDB, but he did win a British Independent Film Award for it. He won a British Independent Film Spirit Award for it.

on the poster the poster is so weird it says from the creator of train spotting even though it's not directed by Danny Boyle so I imagine it's from the person who wrote he did a drugs movie there's 8 billion like five-star review

quotes on this poster but it is mostly James McAvoy in the costume of a of a British police officer what are they called Bobby right with the little helmet hat riding a pig as if it's like a bucking bronco

no this is this is from it seems like it's a chuck ball Oh it is a drug movie but it's not It's the same author as the train spotting author Yes yes that's yes that's yes Jamie Bell is in this movie. Oh, really?

Jim Broadbent is in this movie. Imogen Putes is in this movie. Sure. Do you have any familiarity with this? You seem to have more familiarity than I. I know what it is. It's a one-word title. It's something like not gross, but like drug-related, right?

Because I remember a poster that's, unless I'm misremembering the movie, where he's like climbing a ladder of cocaine. Oh, I'm not looking at that poster. The poster, I'm, oh, yes, I see that one now that you're looking at here. I'm going to send you... What is it? It's like... Wait, I'm just going to... I'm going to send you the link to the MBB page because I want you to see the poster.

The title is like, it's one word, it suggests something like gross or like... It's like trash. Is it trash? Trash. No, trash is the Stephen Daldry movie that we talked about recently. Trash. Trash. Right, exactly. No, I just sent it to you in the chat. Okay.

Oh, it's filth. Filth. Filth. Why is that on his IMDB? Why indeed? This is what I'm saying. Like, you said he won an award for it. Did he win a bunch of, like, niche awards for it?

and it like bumps up on his SEO. All right. I know he won... Because he's not a guy who's won a lot of awards. No, that is the thing. He's been like cruelly underrewarded. He won the BAFTA awards in Scotland.

There's like a specific Scottish BAFTAs, I guess. He won Best Actor there. He won the British Independent Film Award. He... Oh, also London Critics Film Award for that movie as well as trance. And that movie, Welcome to the Punch. So, like, yes, he did win a handful of awards in Britain for this movie that I've never seen or heard of. If you have listeners, tweet at us, let us know.

Is it worth watching? Should I check it out? He doesn't, it seems like maybe it's a not hot McAvoy movie. And you know, I like my Maccaboy stuff, piping hot. Also hot in his dark materials. also hot in just do a rundown of all the things

that James McAvoy is hot in. It's most things. Followed him. Followed him as the wrong way to say that. I walked behind him for half of a block in Toronto one time. I actively did not follow him because I did not.

I actually like turned a block before I needed to turn because I did not want to be the creep following James McAvoy boy, but he was... Suddenly the blower's daughter starts playing in Joe's head. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. He's great. I love him. All right. Anyway, that's it. That's all I got. That's it. That is our episode. If you guys want more, This Had Oscar Buzz, you can check out our Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.com. Please also follow us on Twitter at Had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz.

Joe, tell our listeners where they can follow you. Very good. Good job, Chris. You can find me. I'm on Twitter at Joe Reed, read-spelled R-E-I-D. I am on letterboxed as Joe Reed, read spelled the same way. I am also on Twitter and letterboxed at Chris V. File. That's F-E-I-L.

We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Miebius for their technical guidance. Please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcast. podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, wherever else you get those podcasts. Five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple podcast visibility. So, uh, Raka-Kat-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-Las.

Very good. That's all for this week. We'll be back next week for more buzz. Bye. You can take my snacks Drag it up Whizz it up Give me more

Brick it to the ball Drag of your life Doesn't matter if you're black or white Any color you can drag up your